Skepticism

EVENTS

Why I am an atheist – Stella

Few scraps of useful genealogical information have been salvaged by my family members, but here’s one: a branch of the ancestors were Huguenots, who fled Europe to come to the colonies because of the Inquisition.

I had to do my own research to find the connection to the Spanish Inquisition, which turns out to have had a bloody beginning in the south of France. It was, if anything, even more ferocious there, as the link between politics and religion manifested itself in first the acceptance and then the kingly condemnation of those upstart protestants.

Once the monarchy ran out of money, they also ran out of tolerance as the popes, wealthy beyond kings with income from parishioner tithes and selling indulgences, bargained for political support in return for their money and well-fed armed forces. French rulers gave them a free hand and the torture began.

So the screams from the dungeons persuaded my forbears, and others of the skilled, learned, critically-thinking class that composed the Christian Protestants, to skedaddle off to other parts, finally including England and then the western hemisphere. You can read about it in history – the exodus of the skilled class jump-started Britain’s industrial revolution.

Skip forward a few generations to my mother, a lovely girl with a nervous disposition. That’s what they called it before her volatile moods were diagnosed as bipolar syndrome, with a touch of Borderline Personality Disorder, that catchall for a condition that would have gotten her burned at the stake in Salem, with the hearty approval of everyone, even the non-superstitious-witch-hunting faction.

And when she was cycling through a really crazy spell, she’d occasionally cite some disjointed religious reference as the reason her mania was justified. She’d carry an old bible around, with little notes stuck inside and passages underlined. She got messages nobody else heard, and some were in that book, though for all the relevance to reality it could have been Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy or the Book of Mormon, or any other work of imaginative fiction.

A few weeks before a major breakdown and resulting adventures that make good storytelling now but occasioned plenty of heartbreak and worry then, she came up to me and with the intensity of the manic phase, told me how she got a message from God in a tuna fish sandwich.

“I was eating it and suddenly I had to spit out the next bite – it was so salty, it was horrible! It was awful, like there was a cup of salt in that sandwich, and then I realized it was the tears of Jesus, shed for us!” She had no further insight into penance or salvation, and never spent a moment in prayer or reflection. Religion was just one more symptom of her intense lifelong mental illness, which would have been enough to make me a critical thinker even if it offered the faintest shred of aid or comfort, which it has never provided.

I guess the lesson for my family is: if someone shows up with a Good Book, run for your life!

Comments

She got messages nobody else heard, and some were in that book, though for all the relevance to reality it could have been Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy or the Book of Mormon, or any other work of imaginative fiction.

The ‘Foundation’ series* was much better, made much more logical sense – and, of course, never pretendd to be other than fiction & hasn’t as far as I know been used to justify polgygamy, taking money off others, and all the various misdeeds of the Mormon church. Plus I reckon Asimov’s work is a hell of a lot better written, thought provoking and more entertaining!

* More than just three books in that – although it did start off as a trilogy :

Stella, I would recommend reading, (if you haven’t already done so), “The Carnival in Romans”, an historical account of a late 16th C uprising in the Dauphine region of southern France, by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie.

Beloved in Christ, and especially today, our dear Stella,
Tuna is the problem with your lack of faith… here in B.C. we use Wild Pacific Salmon (canned by Americans) to bring on the Spirit. You simply had a mom who suffered bad luck in choosing tuna canned by Muslims or Atheists. Visit the most beautiful province in Canada and have your faith restored. You’ll end up rolling naked on an ocean beach here, ecstatically witnessing. So gifted are we here, we scare the bejeebers out of unbelievers….even Dick Cheney refuses to come back to Canada. Something about safety concerns….http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/03/12/toronto-dick-cheney-cancels-visit.html
Proves he is not a real Wild Pacific Salmon Christian at all! Thank-you JEEESUS!
JESUS loves you, Stella and as a priest in the WPS church, I humbly offer you b=not just eternal life, but eternally wild life… well, fish, at least.

I don’t know what to say about your mother. In your situation, I wouldn’t have any idea what to do. For whatever the compassion of a stranger on the internet is worth, you have mine.

I liked your historical perspective. The period of the religious wars in France is fascinating me and my family. Christianity schisms fueled very destructive wars all over Europe, strongly affecting the economical and political balance between European nations. Not to mention all the human suffering.

My mom took up genealogy as a hobby and has been tracking down the relatives of the now defunct aristocrat family which was managing over our little village a few centuries ago. To her delight, she has found members of this family all over the world, from European countries to North America and South Africa. Their wanderlust had many reasons, but this family being huguenots, religious persecution was a big motivator.

So the screams from the dungeons persuaded my forbears, and others of the skilled, learned, critically-thinking class that composed the Christian Protestants, to skedaddle off to other parts, finally including England and then the western hemisphere. You can read about it in history – the exodus of the skilled class jump-started Britain’s industrial revolution.

Now that’s a very interesting point. I knew that Protestantism was very prevalent among the French craftmen/skilled workers, and that we lost a good deal of technological edge, notably in clockwork and metallurgy, when they decided to seek a better life somewhere else (not that I blame them). A loss for us French, a gain for England, Germany and Switzerland.

The Marines’ unofficial motto in Vietnam, “Kill ’em all–let God sort ’em out,” was first spoken by a French Catholic Bishop ordering the massacre of a town containing perhaps 10% of whom he considered heretics. Good incentive to move!

Didn’t the English wool and weaving industries get a huge boost, ensuring their domination for a century or two, from the influx of Huguenots fleeing France?

Didn’t the English wool and weaving industries get a huge boost, ensuring their domination for a century or two, from the influx of Huguenots fleeing France? – Markita Lynda

The English wool industry was well-established long before the Huguenots arrived (around 1685, the date of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which promised French Protestants toleration). Originally English wool was exported to Flanders in the raw state, but various medieval kings passed measures to encourage a local wool industry.

Again, the dates don’t look right to me. Most of the Huguenots left in or soon after 1685, while the Industrial Revolution didn’t get underway until around 1770. That’s a slow “kick-start” if they had any influence at all! According to Wikipedia, around 50,000 came to England, most settled in the south-east, where they did contribute significantly to both weaving and lace-making, but the factory system and mechanisation started in the north.

I have to echo Heliantus’ words: “For whatever the compassion of a stranger on the internet is worth, you have mine.”

From my own experience (having been taught history at school by a descendent of the Huguenots who settled in England, and of course living in the area), I suggest that they did contribute to the Protestant work ethic which survives in the region through to today. However there are also negatives, as can go with any religious cult.

On the other hand, as KG and progenitors suggest, the Huguenots made a considerable contribution to lace-making in Nottingham, an industrial dominance which existed until comparatively recently.